SANDCASTLES: BUDDHISM AND GLOBAL FINANCE is a fascinating, interdisciplinary interpretation of the volatile worlds of global finance and international trade. Featuring commentary from economist Arnoud Boot, sociologist Saskia Sassen, and Tibetan Buddhist teacher Dzongzar Khyentse Rinpoche (director of The Cup), the film applies a Buddhist analysis to the functioning of worldwide finance and trade.

Sassen and Boot discuss the sheer scope, power, and social and economic effects of global finance. Capital markets are now valued at an estimated $83 trillion. They exist within a system based purely on self-interest, in which herd behaviour, often based on rumours, can inflate or destroy the value of companies - or whole economies - in a matter of hours.

For his part, Khyentse Rinpoche speaks stirringly of the nature of perception, illusion, and enlightenment. When he says, "Release your attachment to something that is not there in reality, but is a perception," he could easily be referring to 401(k) investments.

Buddhism teaches that there is no self, only a stream of continuous perceptions. Sassen talks about global capital in similar terms. "It's not that there are $83 trillion. It is essentially a continuous set of movements. It disappears and it reappears."

Players in the global financial networks have seemingly had little use for Buddhist philosophy. But SANDCASTLES demonstrates that, seen through a Buddhist lens, the exuberance of global financial wealth is illusory, divorced from the objective reality: the very real human suffering created by deals made on trading floors and in boardrooms invisible to most of us.

Although they approach the questions from different perspectives, their interpretations overlap quite a bit: the value of material wealth, and one's experience of reality, is subjective. And, crucially, Desire plays a decisive role in both daily life and neoliberal economics.

As the enlightening discussion unfolds an important question is raised: can this profit at-all-costs mentality lead to a compassionate, humane economy, in which wealth is distributed more fairly? And how can an understanding of the fleeting and illusory nature of finance and consciousness help us develop alternative approaches?

"Recommended! A unique attempt to bring two complex world views together. SANDCASTLES has the very noble and necessary intent to use media to awaken those both inside and outside the global financial industry to the fundamental nature of their uneasiness and offer a path to a better life."—Educational Media Reviews Online